25 Chapter (22) A Modest Proposal and the Horror of War (6)

[Prepare yourself this chapter is going to get pretty hardcore. I suggest not reading if you were easily triggered by gore or shit like that]

(3rd Pov)

"Before we enter the final purpose of this meeting. Colonel Ackerson would like to propose an extension to the Spartan-III program. He will be making his case now," Admiral Parangosky said while waving her hand haphazardly in James Ackerson's direction at the end of the table.

Ackerson clears his throat before proceeding, "As you heard from the admiral I believe it is necessary to begin development on an additional company of Spartan-III's. At this point in time, Beta Company's training is coming close to its end and there is still no end to this war in sight,"

The Colonel adopts a sly smirk before continuing, "This would make the third Spartan-III company produced. With the few Spartan-IIs we have now and the current status of Alpha Company we need to pre-emptively prepare for the possibility that there will be a sudden need for a large force of highly trained and disposable super soldiers,"

Everyone in the room was uncomfortable after hearing Ackerson describe the children they had molded into tools becoming labeled as 'disposable'. Naomi even shot a small glare at Ackerson for his comment on the Spartan-IIIs. However, the cause of the uneasy feeling in the room was a common guilt shared by most of the high command.

To stop the silence Lord Hood decided to chime in, "Colonel please refrain from calling any soldier disposable. Especially with this atmosphere," Admiral Hood then sighed, "I don't need to hear anything else I decline Colonel Ackerson's proposal for an additional company of Spartan-III's,"

After hearing this the smirk on James Ackerson's face turns into a frown as he adopts a confused expression while looking at the Admiral, "With all due respect Admiral Hood I don't understand. You agreed and wrote off approval of the first 2 company's development. You also disagreed with the fact that the Spartan-IIIs are disposable, which I can't fathom either especially when it's true. Would you please enlighten me on your thoughts?"

"If you must know Colonel I still do not agree with the morality behind this project. I only signed off on the first two companies because as of now the UNSC is becoming increasingly distant, however, Beta company hasn't become active as of yet. After Beta is put into action in the field I am open to reassessing the proposal, but as of now I do not want to condemn another 300 to 400 children if I can help it. As for why I do not want you to call any soldier and especially the Spartan-III's disposable. That is because I do not consider them as such or at least try not to. Putting a value on some lives over others is a very dangerous ideology. Similarly viewing some people as tools rather than other humans can be equally fatal, and Colonel you would do well to remember that fact," Lord Hood voiced his thoughts while not breaking eye contact with Ackerson. Then proceeded to narrow his eyes as he spoke a warning to Ackerson about his opinion.

Ackerson went back to gaining a smug grin as he looked back at Admiral Hood completely ignoring the last words he uttered along with the warning, "I call them disposable because I won't try to sugarcoat the truth around their purpose. Their purpose is to die in order to buy time and give humanity a fighting chance. Logically this would be the best course of action sacrificing the lives of a few in order to save the many, and when faced with possible extinction any other outcome is preferable," Ackerson then looks to Admiral Parangosky maintaining his smug expression before asking, "Isn't that right Admiral?"

Parangosky with her ever-chilling demeanor did not hesitate in answering, "Yes. God help us all. Yes, any alternative is better than the complete annihilation as a species,"

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(Mc Pov)

Inputting the code into the maintenance shaft the door unlocks and opens automatically to my presence. I have my shotgun ready just in case. Seeing as I am about to walk through a doorway commonly referred to as the deadliest location when entering either a building or room, I am already on my toes.

I walk my gun in hand and am ready to fire. I slowly sweep through and clear my immediate vicinity. Nothing was out of place in the room though the lights were turned off and because of VISR being down along with the lack of windows, the only light I could see was from the small lights glowing from my armor. Though it wasn't like I was completely blind, with my enhanced eyesight I could make the most out of the low light in the room.

Eventually, I navigated into the hall attached to this maintenance entrance room and was fortunately greeted with better visibility. Along the walls and halls were red floodlights. I began walking down the corridor staying on guard as I cleared every room I passed. I was weary that my luck would kick in again and there would be some random Covenant foot soldier hiding waiting to ambush me, and I am especially not in the mood to get shot in the ass right now.

Luckily, however, my worries were for naught each and every room was clear and I continued my traveling in the maintenance section. After a minute or two I arrived at my destination, the cargo elevator shaft mostly for hauling equipment and materials for upkeep or repairs. The shaft itself was only about 6 or 7 floors, but from the schematics, the final floor was a large testing space for some type of prototype defense system.

Once at the entrance of the shaft I took a small step back stowed my weapons and made sure they were tightly secured then I leaped reaching for the elevator cables. My hands wrapped around the metal wire tightly, but the momentum from my jump carried me and the cable into the opposite wall. I braced for impact just before I was forcefully bumped into the wall. I bounced off the wall which felt like nothing more than a light shove, thankfully I bumped into the wall with my good side instead of my bad side. Otherwise, I would worry about the bio-foam and my insides coming out like a tube of toothpaste.

I slowly lower myself using the cable like a quasi-rope. I slowly climbed down till I reached an area just above the 5th underground floor but below the 4th floor. I used the override codes given before the mission and gained access to a crawl space above. It had wires running along the top and bottom but was just big enough for me to crawl down in my armor.

My first destination is to get to the data center. According to reports, that is one of the first places Covenant infiltration teams head for. I need to get a count of how many I will most likely need to deal with along with armament.

I crawl for what feels like a couple of minutes until eventually, I hear voices. They are a mix of both deep low grumbles and high-pitched squeaking. Strangely, they aren't coming from the floor below me but instead from the floor above which should be the dorms for the scientists.

Deciding to investigate, I make my way over to what would be a corner of the room. The corner is far enough away that I can just barely make out the vibrations made by whatever the creatures above were speaking. I draw my pistol just to be on the safe side but have no intention of using it yet. Slowly I reach around loosening latches that keep the floor tiles in place. I then gradually raise my head lifting the tile ever so slightly so that just my eyes can see the area in front of me.

The scene that I am greeted with made my blood run cold, only for that feeling to be replaced by a ravaging heat. Anger and rage filled my body and I gritted my teeth at the sight of what the dumb apes, stubby bastards, and turkey fucks were doing. It took all the self-control I had ever had in both of my lives not to go on a blood-fueled rage and rip them bit by bit piece by piece as I relished in their screams.

The cause of such a violent outburst was the simple fact that the brutes, grunts, and jackals were eating. They were eating what seemed to be the remnants of an infant if the size of the human's skull was any factor to go off of. All around the room were bloody bones of the leftovers from their meal. I saw bloodied torn clothes and a couple of corpses in a pile missing limbs and other holes where organs should have been. They were even fighting and horse-playing as they fought over who got what piece of each body.

I could hear them chewing and licking as they ate flesh from the bones of my species. They even had cups from what I thought was the kitchen of course they were filled with red liquid that I assumed to be blood. The entire room looked like a satanic ritual. It was a mess, blood was everywhere and the smell was unholy. Even through my helmet with its numerous air filtration systems I could smell the air. I was compelled to gag but maintained my composure and made sure to burn this image into my mind.

This image of what they do to humans. This scene of ruthless and evil actions will be what fueled me in the years to come. To make sure this never happens again in my sight. Any sympathy for anyone in the Covenant no matter if they had been lied to by the prophets or were misguided had been turned to nothing in this very moment. I will have no mercy and I will avenge all who suffered a fate like this.

"HEY! Stop taking all the small ones! I like the taste of the small things in their head," said one big ugly to another.

"FINE! Only if you give me the hearts. That part of the meat is tougher but I enjoy the extra chewing," said the other in response.

"Can I have some of those small things on the ends of the hands of those humans?" squeaked a grunt with his methane mask down and blood dripping from its mouth.

After a couple more comments and conversations were had by the animals in front of me the biggest eventually made a few stop eating. It was at this point I radioed to Miranda the details I could gather from what I could see pertaining to the group's equipment. The brutes were armed with either a mauler or plasma rifle, but the biggest one most likely the chieftain of the group had two brute plasma rifles. The grunts were using the standard needlers and plasma pistols same as with the jackals. I didn't see any more sniper or marksman jackals so I didn't need to worry about any more beam rifles or carbines.

(Mauler)

(Brute Plasma Rifle)

(Plasma pistol)

(Needler)

They were all dressed in black with some small red accents specifically on their headgear. I recognized the brutes with their black armor as one of the enemy types from the games. They were brute stalkers that were from one of the last levels of Halo 3…If I remember correctly these were able to use active camo which made things much more difficult.

(Brute Stalker)

"Deimos take with you a couple of these runts and get some human food from their 'kitchen' or so they call it. I want to taste something different than the flesh of these weaklings," the chieftain said in a loud grumble.

The brute he called Deimos grunted, said something under his breath, and told 3 grunts and a jackal to come with him. He slowly made his way out of the room and the rest went back to what they were doing previously.

After I saw them move through the doorway I immediately began crawling back to the maintenance elevator shaft. I was going to pick off these 5 while they were away from the group. I was confident in my ability to assassinate these unsuspecting monsters with no hiccups, or I would die trying.

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Yeah so the chapter today was pretty fucked up but that stuff happened in canon. Hell Buck watched on a video his parents being eaten alive by the Covenant. It's shit like this why I don't understand why the master chief can be buddy buddy with the arbiter or any member of the covenant for that matter.

Anyway not much to say if you have any questions drop em hear.

Wait one last thing some people said they found the sound effects jarring/unnecessary so do you want me to just write about the sounds or actually imput the words like I have been doing with the pops and bangs.

Song of the day is "Holy Wars...The Punishment Due" by Megadeth

anyway I hope you all have a blessed day and I will See You Star Side.